Possessed
by White-Monsoon
Summary: With one of her inventions gone haywire, Hotaru has become possessed by an evil spirit. Only one person knows of her trouble, make a good guess who. main: HotaruxRuka side: NatsumexMikan
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes: this whole story is dedicated to my best friend who hasn't finished a single story yet even though she really wants to. And since Gakuen Alice is her favorite show, I decided to make this. **

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE SHOW…capeesh? (is that how you spell it? hehe)**

Chapter 1:

She screamed for help but at no prevail.

She cringed in pain but it was futile.

She thought hard but her mind was blocked with a blank color.

Frankly, she didn't expect one of her inventions to start rebelling against her. She peered over at the neighboring pumping machine that was constantly releasing a deadly looking black cloud, which was slowly drifting into Hotaru.

Recently, the cloud had entered her body with the first general gasp of air she took in through her nostrils after adding the last few finishing touches to her new invention. It was too late by the time she realized something had barged into her body.

She felt pain churn in the middle of her chest. The dark cloud had already surrounded her heart, pounding itself outside the organ in an attempt to control the last bit of her conscious soul.

She fell onto the floor, struggling with uneasy attempts of oxygen and difficult resistance to the temptations voice that cornered her mind, deceiving her into giving up her soul, making it easier for the cloud to control her.

Her body lay flat on the floor as she felt like every part of her joint was being electrocuted...

like her bones were lessening their cells in each passing moment...

like her head was being attacked by hundreds of needles...

It was no doubt tear-jerking painful...but she couldn't give up.

There was no way she was going to let go of her soul, now that her body was taken over by the unknown creature.

She had to hold on.

"Imai, what are you-?"

that voice.

The mentioned girl unwillingly glanced at the familiar blonde haired boy from behind her purple emotionless eyes, the cloud observing the newcomer through them as well.

The boy was young, having shown two large unfraternal pairs of beautiful sky blue orbs positioned perfectly on his face, a small button nose that pointed down to the obviously worried expression his lips were mimicking and a little bunny that his hands held protectively.

Hotaru's heart skipped a beat at his sudden appearance, and unfortunately it didn't go unnoticed to the freeloader in her body.

The boy quickly went over to Hotaru's side and crouched beside her.

"I heard you scream, are you ok?" Ruka asked her, concern definite in his question

"no" her voice reacted, unfortunately the spirit had manage to control that too.

"you are unnecessary, get lost!" Ruka seemed taken back by her words as so was the real Hotaru.

Tears started curling at the corner of her unrevealing eyes, sliding down her pale ivory cheeks. The reason of the breakdown was unknown to her but the cloud knew immediately, after feeling those salty tears reach the bottom of her chin and crash onto the concrete floor below, why she was crying.

"I'm trying to help you here"

"I don't need your help, boy" Ruka ignored that last comment as his eyes drifted over to the invention breathing beside him.

His small nose flared, noticing the treacherous odor slowly being released by it. He swiftly clapped a hand over his nose, sniffing his own lemon-scented alcohol that he had poured onto his hand that morning and turned back to Hotaru.

"there's something wrong with your invention"

"there's nothing wrong with Hotaru's invention, its simply just malfunctioning"

"malfunctioning? Imai…you have to get out of here! It might…"

"Hotaru is not leaving here"

"would you stop using yourself in the third person, we seriously have to get out of here!"

"Hotaru is not leaving!"

"Imai…"

"No!" It seemed unusual for someone to shout when they were on the floor, especially when little pricks of tears came out of that person ever so occasionally at each shouted claim and order but Ruka couldn't take much more of it. The scent was probably getting to his head after all he never really would have given up on anyone especially with someone he considered a friend.

But that was exactly what he did.

Ruka stood from where he had knelt down and clenched his fists in thrusted disappointment.

"fine…I see, your as…cold as ever, Imai" Ruka's bangs fell to cover his hurt expression. Unfortunately from Hotaru's view looking up, the pained look didn't go past her intelligent eyesight.

"and to think I thought I was going to help you but..." he didn't allow himself to finish that sentence as he stood up and headed for the room's exit.

Hotaru's heart cracked slightly but it was enough.

It was enough for her to hear it echo repeatedly inside her two intact ears.

It was enough for Ruka to stop and ponder on the peculiar sound.

It was enough to allow the cloud to enter her heart and gain her soul.

"Imai, did you hear that-?"

BOOM!

Hotaru's beloved research home had exploded.

* * *

Through the hot flames and hovering smoke that centered inside the building, there was a laugh.

A loud sinister laugh.

One that bursted out of a certain short raven haired female, and resounded every time it bounced off the building's close to demolished walls.

Fresh air cooled down the girl's sweaty face as she breathed in the terrible aroma of smoke and continued her long session laughing disturbingly, if you asked the real owner of the body.

"would you shut up already?" Hotaru's voice scolded the spirit (known before as 'the cloud') inside her mind.

"Hotaru, your still alive? That is very...surprising" a voice hissed angrily back at the girl but Hotaru took no threat.

"ok...let's get some things straight here, alright? First, I don't laugh. Never did, never will…a short giggle will be fine but if your trying out a villainous profile, it would be advised not to laugh in MY body" she spoke calmly at the spirit, strange for a girl who has just lost control of her body but then again...this was Hotaru not your usual average grade school girl

"second, what was with those tears before? I never cry because of a boy, let alone someone who carries a bunny"

"actually...you were the one that-"

"third, your leaving my body in the middle of a sea of flames. Whatever your planning, you should first get out of this building and run to a nicer venue instead of being stuck inside, correct?" The spirit narrowed his eyes impatiently at the girl.

"you're the one that's stuck inside your own head, your not in a good position to command me"

"its called advice, you idiot…I see your new to being the villain, might as well take advice from someone whose a professional in that subject" Hotaru mused, tackling the spirit's pride mercilessly without much of an insult. He refused to let the argument pass right through his fingers, getting that Hotaru was winning.

"you annoying little brat! Speak again and I will allow this body to be consumed in flames" prompt silence and wished peace was soon restored inside Hotaru's mind, allowing him to think about the situation at hand.

He knew that her conscience was the only reason that she still remained alive, forcing her to live inside her own mind and to be fairly aware of any whereabouts he would do whilst being inside her body. It was also because THAT boy (Ruka) had only made a tiny crack in her heart, so it didn't entirely kill her conscience but instead leave it less determined.

Hotaru (now controlled by the spirit) peered over at the unconscious boy on the ground, fire slowly engulfing his small figure.

"If it wasn't for you, boy...I wouldn't have gained control over Hotaru, for this I share my gratitude" said the spirit, using the raven-haired genius' low female voice.

He instantly heard the sound of sirens approaching the facility, warning an immediate retreat. He surveyed the room for a safe exit, finding only an open window with burned curtains flapping angrily thanks to the wind.

As if he was a trained circus tiger jumping through a flaming hula hoop, he jumping out through the window, landing safely onto the grass spread out below.

"hehe, sorry that I couldn't get your boyfriend out, Hotaru" he chuckled, knowing that the girl could hear him.

He gave one last glance at the burning house before departing the area and secretly formulating the first few bits of his 'evil' plan.

* * *

At the back of her mind, sat a very small Hotaru, hugging her knees, her chin nestled atop the warm clothing garment she wore.

Very small.

That was the limit of her control. She still controlled half of her soul but that was nothing compared to what the big honcho had currently owned.

She had heard the spirit's faint voice teasing her about Ruka, resulting her to two different reactions.

First, she grumbled distastefully at the word 'boyfriend', it was a ridiculous idea for her to end up with that animal lover. His blonde locks were too bright for her taste, same with his eyes. Two words: too cheery. She wondered how she put up with those picture sessions of him, let alone enjoy them. Sure, she made some profit out of those photos but it seemed unexplainably odd that she would find it as something fun to do.

Second, a tear rolled down her cheek as she saw Ruka on the floor, another one tumbled after the other, seeing the realistic scenario of herself leaving him in that dangerous rampage of fire.

Why did that make her sob?

He was just a really close friend, nothing more.

And the fact that she cried silently for three hours straight thinking about that incident, did NOT count as a reason to promote that point.

**Author's Notes: Well? I know that its mostly RukaxHotaru but hey I see a lot more NatsumexMikan fanfics in majority than this couple, putting that aside… hope you enjoyed this =) (pls review)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Notes: Ok, so I wont make this into a one-shot. I kind of enjoy making this story anyway. Sorry for the boring small usage of vocabulary, I haven't been myself lately. **

**Anyways...**

**thanks rukaru-romance. passion (btw there's no space in her name, fanfiction just wont allow me NOT to put space) and CarJanLucy for the reviews, you guys really made my day =) **

**ok on with whatevers on this chapter... **

Brown chestnut pigtails skimmed against the cold morning wind of the all-familiar fall season. Her eyes of mere equivalent color to her hair, watered at each possible corner as it observed the burning house.

Flames bulging out of all the exits, ember exploding from the roof and smoke sizzling into everyone's noses, it's ghastly stench swarming inside their lungs. The untamable element ate up everything it touched, grazing its extreme heat against the cement, wood and brick.

People were coming to help extinguish the fire from afar directions but it so happens that a class seemed to be passing by the facility, experiencing the tremendous explosion and theorizing among themselves an answer to the unresolved problem of who would be unlucky enough to be inside that building at that exact particular moment.

A certain girl knew of course...

that her bestfriend was inside at the time of disaster.

She knew of the new invention her bestfriend had spent nights before trying to master. She knew that her bestfriend would skip class and fake an excuse, just to finish that machine in time for a particular untold deadline. Her chest grew warm at the idea for she had no doubt of who was inside...

"Hotaru!" Mikan yelled, darting forward towards the building, allowing her tears to fall sideways at the advance movement of her body.

"Mikan, don't go in there!" Narumi ordered, alarmingly lunging at the girl. Mikan felt two large arms stop her from playing on her attempted save as she relaxed into her teacher's hold on her, both for protection and comfort.

"the fire department will be here soon, we'll just have to wait" he whispered, reassurance clear in his voice.

"please...don't do the same mistake you did before" Mikan blinked at what her teacher had said, wondering if it was just her imagination or did he just sound so desperate to keep her there?

Putting that aside, she questioned about his plead 'don't do the same mistake you did before',

remembering the night she had ran into another burning house and saved a tape from being destroyed for the sake of a little kid who couldn't sleep without it. She would've been killed if Hotaru hadn't been there to save her.

"Hotaru..." the brunette muttered quietly, dispersing her view of the framework. Narumi let go of his embrace and separated himself a good distance from her, knowing she needed some time for herself, alone of course.

"oh dear, Hotaru must still be in there" his students began conversing

"nah, she was called in sick today, remember?"

"but Hotaru would never miss a class even if she was sick"

"Ruka was sick and he missed class"

"it's different with Hotaru"

"uh...maybe she was tired"

"tired? Tired of what?"

"I dunno, studying?"

"why would Imai be tired of that?"

"I always get tired of that, ooh! ooh! maybe Hotaru was just sleeping inside there and then ...BOOM!"

"oh dear, what if she really was in there when-"

"ok ok guys, let's stop talking about Hotaru actually being inside there, ok?" Narumi cut in fast, feeling Mikan's uncomfortable aura at the subject.

She was constantly shivering...not because she was cold but because she was scared. Her reason for almost everything was slowly dying.

Her reason for running away from home.

Her reason that she entered Alice Academy.

Her reason that she was presently alive now.

Of course, she wasn't thinking of suiciding herself, it was just because most of the time it was Hotaru saving her from fatal situations at the beginning, middle and end of her first year in Alice Academy.

She inhaled the wind as calmly as she could manage, not caring if it still carried particles of smoke from the fire now and then. She was just anxious to be reunited with 'her reason'

...with her bestfriend.

The teacher sighed

"its times like this, that I wish Natsume was in class today"

"oh but Natsume-kun is in the hospital right now, sensei" Sumire reported, happy that she was able to speak for her idol.

"yes yes, I know but if he was here, he could help with the fire somehow" Narumi continued, flashing a look at the bright red flames hungrily fingering the entrance of the building. He suddenly heard the sound of sirens coming in louder, standing on his tiptoe, he searched for the source of the noise.

"ah, here comes the fire department now...now all we have to do is just-" he stopped abruptly, something was wrong. He missed a student.

No not Hotaru.

Or Natsume.

Or Ruka for that matter.

Panic slid down his body like an electric shock in his adult nervous system as he saw the missing student running towards the fire.

"Mikan!"

* * *

"cough...cough...Hotaru!" Mikan cried, as the smoke entered her only two breathing entrances and centered inside her throat.

She quickly grabbed her favorite Pokka dotted handkerchief from her skirt pocket and covered her nose and mouth with it, all the while she was frantically scanning the first floor through the light roaring flames for her bestfriend, ignoring the calls the class exclaimed to her for her utmost return.

"Hotaru!" Mikan's shouts grew louder as she became more and more desperate at each failing attempt. Her shoes had already picked up some hitchhiking fire bits which slowly began to sink into the fabric as she moved forward.

Suddenly, the silhouette of a person appeared from inside one of the many rooms contained on the first floor hallway. Mikan ran towards the person, praying that it was her dearly beloved friend and not the enemy that started the humungous ember attack.

For all she knew, it could have been Natsume who began the whole thing but then again the cold arrogant pervert should be at the hospital right now or 'disastrous' methods would take place to help him survive, or so she heard. The reason for his jailing in the nursing home was hidden from the students but Mikan was sure that all of the teachers knew about it. She'd have to beg Narumi later to feed her rising curiosity but right now she was in a terrible position to even think that.

She huffed in disappointment as she faced Hotaru's robot look-alike of her (which appeared to be the silhouette) but switched emotions right after seeing the unusual change of her look.

Half of her entire layer of skin was slowly starting to peel off, revealing hard metal on the other side, Mikan's supposedly artificial pigtails were cut from the exposure to fire and dark inner liquids sprayed out from her electronic abdomen.

"Amanatsu! What happened to you?" Mikan stared horrified at the appearance.

She reached out her hand to the peels, disbelieving it's existence. As her fingertip came in contact with it though, she felt a burning sensation run through her palm and quickly withdrew her hand, letting out a short squeal. The robot though didn't mind Mikan's small burn, there was no time.

"Mikan-chan! Hurry! Ruka-san is-"

"Luca-pyon? But where's Hotaru?"

"yes yes Hotaru is-" Amanatsu suddenly toppled onto the ground, visible electricity sparking throughout the robot's metal. Punishment of remaining too close to the high heat levels of the living ember.

"Amanatsu!"

"Mikan-chan...second floor...hurry..." the robot muttered before falling unconscious. Mikan looked with deep concern and worry at Amanatsu, she wanted to help her but it would be difficult to do since she can't lay a finger on the metal without getting burned. She didnt give a quick thought to her plan, it was all instinct.

She carefully stretched out the handkerchief she previously held to her nose as far as it possibly could and slipped her hands under Amanatsu's back, the cloth gloved her hands. Luckily, Amanatsu wasnt heavy at all. She then ascended her way upstairs, holding in her breath along the way, avoiding flying debris and grazing fire and making sure the robot didn't fall off her hands.

She soon found a body lying on the floor, one look though and she recognized him at once.

"Luca-pyon!" she dropped the robot on a part of the floor certain to be in no sign of a fire, retrieved her warm handkerchief and went to Ruka's aid, bending down and holding the boy in her arms, wiping off baby flames from his half-engulfed coat and shorts. A thought struck her and she instantly placed the back of her hand on his forehead.

"he has a fever, this isn't good!" Mikan panicked, adding that to her mental list of problems.

It consists of: Amanatsu close to dying, Ruka sick at a terrible time, Hotaru missing and a burning house willing to kill them all.

"Hotaru..."

"Luca-pyon, your awake?"

"Mi...Mikan?"

"uhuh...come on, Luka-pyon we have to..."

"Mikan, Look out!" Mikan's eyes widened in shock as she saw a burning wooden beam fall from the ceiling, aiming directly at her and Ruka.

* * *

A pot full of boiling chemicals was whistling its finished product just as Hotaru (still controlled) nailed a metal tube to the main invention.

It was as small as an average house lamp, having taken the form of a giant gray egg with a leg hatching out of it.

Hotaru quickly turned the boiler off and the sound ceased. She lifted up the pot of liquids and dumped a portion of it onto the in-progress machine. She smirked at the improvement

"this is almost too easy"

"so how's the new invention going, Hotaru?" came a girl's pleasant voice.

"it's an absolute success, Nonoko" Hotaru replied, not minding to say 'thank you' since the materials were all from her personally.

Through Hotaru's memory, the spirit was able to locate the girl's name and address plus the information of her alice regarding chemicals. That, of course, was necessary for finishing the invention. The spirit was lucky though that Nonoko had skipped afternoon classes to finish one of her projects, resulting her to miss the tragic scene back at Hotaru's research building and gifting him the chance to operate on her chemicals.

"if you need any more help just call, ok?" the dark haired girl smiled sweetly before leaving the room to attend to her unfinished project.

"Tsk, your help won't be needed anymore" Hotaru murmured, leaning down to a low hole in the back of the machine and trying to connect an inner wire to another.

"what's your plan?" the real Hotaru asked from inside her own mind, her eyes puffy from the recent crying she did.

"I plan to create a machine that will be powerful enough to destroy the world and the being's living in it"

"it won't work"

"what was that, brat?" the spirit grumbled, stopping his tries to connect the wire.

He was never patient with her, Hotaru presumed

"even if you succeed in making the machine... you would still be in an Academy full of people with 'special abilities' we call Alices. Even if you tried, there's no way you can succeed with people that could stop it's work"

"I've already went through every alice user your memory knows and fixed the machine to be immune when it comes to their attacks. Only one person would be able disrupt my plans"

"who might that be?" the spirit smiled evilly at Hotaru's question, it made her sound absolutely gullible.

"you'll see"

**Author's Notes: longer than most of the other chapters in this story, i realize. Hope you enjoyed it though... if not i can recommend tons of better Rukaru stories that you could read instead, one that I really recommend is: **

**'You Had It All Wrong' by rukaru-romance. passion (again there's no space in her name)**

**its amazing! she finally updated more chappies, hehe. Ehm...sorry off topic**

**oh and lastly review pls**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Notes: Shortness(ness) and Stupidity(ness) LOL **

**Oh btw thanks for that second review rukaru-romance. passion (again there's no space in her name) **

**it feels kinda weird though like I'm talking to u everytime i read ur reviews, its a good weird though =) **

**oh and thanx also for recommending my story in urs, srry that this was late but lets just say something kept me bc**

**anyways here's the third chap, enjoy!**

She screamed in the hopes of help, shifting the direction of the falling beam to her. As she awaited the hard impact, she shut her eyes in fear and clutched Ruka tighter to her body. If the wood had hit him instead of her, Mikan would never have forgiven herself. Even if he had survived that accident, the fire would surely be enough to worsen his wounds in his feverish state; she had to protect him with as much as her body would allow her to shield him with and also in the most convenient way possible.

She waited...

and waited...

and waited...

Surprisingly, nothing came down.

Mikan peeked up to see a boy, his flaming red ruby orbs gazing back at her.

"Natsume?" Mikan stared in awe at the raven black haired boy, his left hand in the air and his fire alice allowing him to levitate the flaming beam from reaching the two on the floor. He stood beside Mikan and Ruka's form on the ground as the fire surrounding the three started to dissolve into oxygen.

"get to a safe place..." Natsume muttered, channeling more energy into his palm to force the wood to remain floating in the air.

"wh...what?" Mikan raised an eyebrow, unable to catch his recent statement.

"get to a safe place..."

"what?"

"run, you idiot!" Mikan gave an understanding 'oh!' before hurrying Ruka and Amanatsu over to a distanced brittle black table, huddling herself under it as well.

Why the table instead of running out?

Mikan will never EVER (and she won't start now) abandon a friend, even if it would cause damage to herself. As for Ruka and Amanatsu, she just considered them as 'coming along for the ride' since she assumed they would be safe wherever she would be, after all, Natsume strangely didnt make any objections about her intentions, it actually made it alot easier a decision for her.

She wanted to help, somehow...

Ruka, because of his fever, had gone back to rest, no one could blame him though, he was sick.

"...so is Natsume" thought Mikan

"why else would he be in the hospital? He's bound to have a fever too" she shook the thought off her dense mind and concentrated her eyes on her savior instead.

Natsume looked at his friends from under the table and relaxed a bit. He had already taken out the flames from that furniture previously, so he knew that his friends were safe in that temporary shelter for the time being.

He knew that Mikan would just go under there and refuse to depart on him. And even if he would command her to leave, she wouldn't. It's just who she was, nothing could change that. That little fact ACTUALLY made his lips curve into a smile for a moment.

Just for a moment though.

It would've lasted longer, if not for the unsolved disaster involving him and his energy dispersing. Then yes, it would have.

Still floating in the air, the beam was shoved away from Natsume and the others, all the way to the other side of the room, opposite to his friends.

The boy took uneven breaths of smoke before collapsing onto the floor. Because of his unhealed sickness, his energy was down to nothing just by doing that simple movement and he knew it wouldn't be soon until he was done for. Although that was true, his senses remained loyally vigilant, having done hours of training with Persona years before, his extreme level of defense never descended, they unusually just kept improving with each passing day.

Natsume at once heard the little bits of embers trickling down from the wall behind him, slowly crawling their way towards him.

"Natsume!" Mikan shouted, watching the continuous scene from under the burned black furniture.

Natsume huffed; there wasn't much to breathe in a burning house, so he couldn't do anything.

No oxygen, no flames...

Simple fact and yet Mikan didn't know anything about it.

He listened motionlessly to the fire tapping behind him succeeding closer, Mikan's warning exclamations and his own voice begging him to recharge energy miraculously.

"Agh!" came a girl's ear-piercing cry. Natsume revolved his head to the sound and saw Mikan on the floor next to Ruka, another fallen heated beam weighing itself atop the table they have been currently taking shelter under, pressing the two bodies (and robot) down to the floor.

There wasn't time.

The flames of the beam traced the black table, following the path of its leg, running towards his friends.

There wasn't time.

The fire threatened to drop as it hovered over Mikan's head, practically grinning at Natsume's vulnerability.

There wasn't time.

There was chill scream, a burned hand and suddenly appearing tears before Natsume knew it.

BOOM!

Another explosion?

* * *

"another explosion?" Narumi remarked surprisingly, as his class gave a series of astonishing 'oooh's and 'aaah's at the resulted gray cloud of smoke forming craftily into the expanded blue sky. It took the shape of a giant broccoli, it's stems rooted to the burning house as it expanded it's top.

"it's not an explosion" reported a man's voice

"Jinno-sensei?" the class chorused at the approaching glasses-wearing teacher.

"what do you mean, Jinno?" Narumi inquired, half dissapointed at the man's last minute appearance and half appreciating his actual understanding of the scene.

"if it's not an explosion, then what is it?"

"it's actually the opposite..."

* * *

Mikan's eyes instinctively fluttered open, she expected heaven or purgatory to be at her point of vision. The big sound accompanied by the blinding light was a sure way to kill her if not the flames should have made a full elimination of her and her friends.

She looked around curiously and found out she was still in Hotaru's facility, strangely there wasn't any sign of a fire just some brittle black walls and furniture daring to topple down at any moment.

"what happened to the fire?" Mikan scratched her head bewildered, crawling carefully out of her hiding place to clearly inspect the room's half-demolished features.

The alcove mainly composed of plain prominent colors of white, black and some others in between the two, all original color had been lost into a sea of zebras (at least thats what Mikan had imagined it to be)

Once completely out, she began pulling the other two companions from under the same table. She stopped short at the heartbreaking sight she saw coincidentally through an adjacent broken mirror dangling lazily atop the table Ruka and Amaratsu were half under.

A figure was set harshly on the burned black floor, blood spilling out perpetually from all parts of its body and eyes wide open in detested fear but never had they blinked.

"Natsume!"

* * *

"Where am I?" Ruka's head surveyed the black background his body had claimed to be in.

It was funny, no walls, no floor, no ceiling and no means of an end nor an escape.

He's seen things like these in late night movies; the person would soon wake up from a strange nightmare or (but this happens rarely) some aesthetic dream consisting of dominant floras and faunas. Though, what the light stramineous haired boy unquestionably attempted to penetrate was nothing close to that.

"hello? anybody there?" he echoed through cupped hands as he stared blankly into the silent midst of the unknown, feeling nothing but the normal intake of air and it's exhalation afterwards.

What was scary though was strangely not the moaning voices continuously lurking around the area mysteriously but of the missing phobia that didn't occur to him the slightest when he was at that kind of situation.

To put it more specifically, he didn't feel scared.

Not at THAT moment, he presumed, IT was probably waiting to catch him off guard and attack when he would be weak.

So he awaited for the worst, maybe a humungous monster might end up poking out it's Cyclops' eye from one part of the dark endless walls or maybe even a long black haired, pale complexioned, murderous intent filled, blood-scarlet eyed girl holding up a red drained knife towards him.

Whatever would be sent out, he would be ready to face.

He knew it was all just figments of his imagination playing inside his nightmare and soon enough he would awake from his sleep, realize he was just in a coma and everything would go back to normal…

Wouldn't it?

All of a sudden, whatever IT was, was being sent out. Raven hair was the first thing Ruka was able to identify from the person's features in the immense darkness that was pictured around him. He held up his fists in prepared defensive mode when...

Wait a minute, that's...

"Nogi? What are you doing here?"

"I...Imai?"

**Author's Notes: O-kaaaay, i suffered lying on my stomach for 3-4 hours while finishing this, LOL **

**gess its worth it...was fun after all =))**

**Oh, RukaxHotaru fans...i kinda added slight NatsumexMikan to complete some parts of the story...eheh srry**

**now i will be limping away from the computer, clutching my stomach whilst it have a churning pain inside hehe 'Sayonara'! **

**Review pls! **


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Notes: Waaahh!!! I haven't updated in a loooooooooong time, almost forgot I had a fanfiction account :(**

**So I will make a comeback! Here's the next chapter :D**

"um...I'm sorry. But at the moment, all three of your students are being surgically operated, you need not worry though...the doctors are the best at the Academy, they'll finish in thirty"

"I see, well then I'll check back later then, thank you for the information" he beamed at her with his alice activated naturally. To be able to gain confidential doctor's notes from the oh-so-loyal female receptionist, politeness was crucial even when a fatal problem took place, so Narumi knew it was best to stick to that rule.

The teacher wobbled back idiotically towards his colleague, worried sick of his trio of favorite students. All the while, ignoring the glances of the worker he had just flirted out info from.

"are they still in the operating room?" Jinno eyed the perky blonde, who was more depressed than perky that day.

"yeah, they won't be coming out anytime soon"

"I see" Jinno's stare drifted away from the teacher as if to think something through.

He too was worried about the three top aliceusers of the Academy a.k.a. The three top troublemakers at the Academy. His facial expression never left it's cold and stoic usuality but low and behold consern was definite in his eyes. That was his real reason to wearing tiny circular spectacles along the bridge of his nose, his eyes revealed too much. And so his weakness had been foretold.

Narumi glanced at the neighboring teacher, his own purple eyes with the curiousity of a child.

"that explosion..."

(Flashback)

BOOM! "another explosion?"

(End of flashback)

"what was it?"

The grumpy educator focused his glasses towards the curious purple eyes that Narumi blinked timidly. The sun grazed light against Narumi's view of Jinno's glasses as if coincidentally trying to keep it from being penetrated.

"it was an assimilation"

"assimilation? Of fire?"

"yes, it was done by the Hyugga" Jinno balanced his personal punishment stick atop his pointer finger in fake boredom, finding it hard to explain the situation to his associate.

"Natsume? But how...?"

"the assimilation probably activated because of his anger, the fire transfered to his blood and it is pointed out that blood and fire aren't much of a good combination plus some of the little parts of the flame got into Sakura and Nogi, the current position is very dangerous"

"...so this is...fatal?" Jinno's eyes narrowed in contemplation.

"that I do not know"

Narumi's expression saddened, he couldn't do anything to help his students' wiltering health. It was a fact that even Jinno had applyed to his strategic mind, just more recently than himself. His alice can only attract, never repel. For once he regretted his having THAT alice, it was only good for information, nothing more.

"excuse me, I'm looking for an Imai Hotaru"

"I'm sorry but she's not registered in this hospital"

"can you please look again?"

lavender orbs shot up instantly at the familiar voice, his eyes catching the back of a highschool junior with midnight blue hair and the edge of his glasses curved atop his small ears.

"that person..."

* * *

"Kyaaaaaaaaaaa!!!"

"hold still! Nurse, how many more?"

"about forty-two, sir"

"ok, pass me the scapel"

after barely a second, the cold metal cautiously ripped open her skin and with tweezers the doctor plucked out something that had been burning her shoulder blade for quite some time now. She struggled as he began to rip another part of her skin while the nurse began sewing back on the skin from her shoulder blade.

Mikan didnt know of the dangers lurking inside her body like little viruses, the surgery was bad enough that she couldn't think properly about it. She yelled and kicked as the doctor went to a different posistion in her body, the nurse switching as well.

From the operating room, Mikan unfortunately heard more than her own screams. Natsume's voice roared in suffering and Mikan heard it very clearly indeed, even with the big cemented wall seperating the two operations. For a moment, she dropped her assault on the two medics to listen to the tortured boy.

"N...Natsume?" her hand mentally reached out to the white wall in between the two, wanting to hold HIS hand so he wouldn't scare her anymore with his own shouts. Her head glanced at the white framework, her eyes watered a bit at the blank sight. She wasn't willing to admit anything to the perverted boy, she knew that...but...

The doctor glanced at his patient with queer curious eyes.

"nurse, she stopped kicking"

"no time for that, sir... her blood circulation is slowing down, we need to do this quick" the assistant medic called back as she finished her sewing job, too busy to even face the doctor in sudden conversation.

"oh...yes, yes" he stammered, walking around Mikan's body to attack another part of her flesh. Finally finding it an easier job with her legs and arms strapped down voluntarily.

* * *

"Imai?" Ruka repeated, his stare never left her shocked pale white face.

Her eyes were wider than usual at that moment in thrusted suprise but her facial expression had never left its general emptiness. Her hands shook in a strange shivering fashion, making her limbs look like two horses' tails wagging gayfully above her legs. She had her two feet pointing their toes at eachother as if she had been walking in formal X's for quite some time. Her piercing lavender eyes looked puffier than usual, Ruka theorized immediatly that Hotaru had been crying earlier.

That idea was impossible.

That could never happen, this was Imai Hotaru he was thinking about, she would never-

........assuming this really was the real Hotaru.

She gave him the once-over before strolling casually over to his side.

"don't tell anyone that I cried" she commanded bluntly, leaving Ruka's mouth dropping down in shock.

"it's obvious that I did. Only that dummy, Mikan can't tell the difference. If i stayed up too late or i would cry for some unessential reason, she would think the eyebag results are just related to the first theory" Hotaru explained, disregarding Ruka's open-mouthed reaction.

"if you tell anyone about it, you can forget about that image of yours once all your photos are sold-out" with this, it dawned Ruka that she was the genuine Hotaru even with the minor out-of-character details.

"on the other hand" she started

"what are you doing in my subconscious? To get here, you need to read my mind but no one has ever been able to read my mind since I was born...unless there's another way, but from what I know there is no other way in or out other than that" Ruka studied her words carefully and then at the last minute it hit him.

"IM IN YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS?"

Hotaru gave him an 'are-you-stupid?' look, the one she would usually give Mikan when she wouldn't use her common sense.

Ruka and Mikan.

Her dull eyes sparkled at their alikeness, getting back a little radiance to her dark orbs. Her lips curved into a small smile as she saw Ruka panic around the dark room a.k.a. her subconscious.

She noticed he hadn't brought that bunny of his, probably because it couldn't enter her mind that easily like Ruka did.

How did Ruka get in here anyway?

"Hotaru-sama, your awfully quiet, what are you up to?" echoed the spirit's voice, alarming the two companions.

Hotaru had feared that if Ruka would have been discovered, he would have shared the same fate of being trapped in the void known to be her mind.

She quickly grabbed Ruka by the arm and whispered to him

"get out of here now"

"who was that? That voice?"

"he's a spirit controlling my real body and if he finds you, your going to be trapped to" she continued, her face remaining surprisingly neutral.

Although, this wasn't the time, she still had her image. To maintain that image, she had to remain calm, cool and collected. So she excused her obvious concern with a direct insult.

"apparently I can't live with you for an eternity inside my head, it'd be torture"

unaware to her, Ruka just ignored the insult, as his eyes brushed the surrounding blackness.

"Imai, how do I get out?"

"the way you got in" Hotaru answered bluntly as she pushed him into the darkest corner of the room.

"wha-" he cried, falling back on his tushy.

Ruka was about to stand in protest but quickly silenced himself as a light illuminated the area like an open door as Hotaru stood bravely in preparation. A voice boomed into the room from the rectangular light.

"Hotaru-sama, you better not be trying to escape, it'd be useless anyway" Hotaru sighed at the spirit

"...I know, I'm not stupid"

"watch your tongue! you cant talk to me like that in your position"

Ruka sat back in little fear against the corner, waiting for the 'spirit' to leave so he could at least try to help Hotaru.

Her expression suddenly looked depressed even with the same cold mask, making it hard to decipher. All the same, it made his heart churn, one way or another.

"the potion is almost through, I'd like to borrow your mind for a while" the spirit snickered

"let's hope it can take the process"

"do I have a choice?" her rhetorical question never reached the spirit, it unfortunately reached Ruka though.

He watched as she took a deep breath and released it.

Her knowledge.

It was one of the most beautiful thing Ruka had ever seen yet.

Colors formed on top of her forehead, tracing forward towards the light in the style of ribbons, tangling together in a circular motion. The ribbons were of every color of the rainbow excluding the white one, which twirled in the middle of the others in obvious protection, by far the most beautiful. It styled like a light braid in the darkness, Ruka had to cover his eyes to make sure he wouldn't go blind.

But as it reached the spirit's light, it lost it's color, forcing the collection into gray and black.

Hotaru cringed in pain as the white one darkened, she toppled onto the ground, trying her best to keep the knowledge in best condition.

She screamed as the last bit of the 'ribbon' collection snapped from her forehead and was sucked into the deathly illumination.

"Imai!" Ruka scrambled towards her as the spirit left to finish his concoction. Hotaru knelt motionless, gasping and sweating, at the terrible treatment.

"I...I'm fine" she choked, putting a hand over her mouth to prevent a cough from reaching him.

The two gazed at her palm, stained in red. She shook off her fears of the concept and placed her other hand on Ruka's tensed shoulder.

"there isn't much time, go! now!" she yelled between gasps of air.

"but your not-"

"Nogi, if you don't leave, I'd never forgive myself" her grip tightened around his shoulder. He took her hand in his in attempts to comfort the tired girl.

"once your out, get Natsume, protect Mikan from the sacrifice"

"the sacrifice? What sacrifice?"

"I don't have time to explain that to you, leave now and whatever you do, don't try to save me!" as if by her command, Ruka went transparent and disappeared in an instant.

She gazed up at the empty space her hand had took refuge at, her breathing improving.

"good luck, Ruka..."

* * *

"Imai!" Ruka shot up from his sleep. Finding himself in a secluded hospital room, he drop back down dissapointed.

The bed was comfy, he thought this necassary because his arm was in a cast and his chest was wrapped in bandages so it ceased the pain...but his cardiac organ still hurt.

The electric fan twirled a few feet above him...but he felt heat instead of the cool production.

The lighting was better in the room, the white curtains that were blown calmly welcomed the sunshine in...but it was a terrible bargain.

Leaving Hotaru to the mercy of that spirit was, he decided, the worst mistake he had ever made.

The 'spirit' had probably been controlling her ever since he had encountered her back at her research building. It was devastating how long Hotaru could hold on even with all the pain she regurally suffered at each favor the spirit takes from her.

Ruka ducked his head in contemplation, thoughts driving to her imperative commands to him

"-whatever you do, don't try to save me!" that one echoed in effect.

Ruka raised his head in final decision.

"I will definately save her even if it'll cost my lif-"

all of a sudden a voice halted his declaration

"Ruka Nogi, what do you know of Hotaru?" Ruka faced the newcomer in suprise.

"Subaru Imai?"

**Author's Notes:**

**I will work hard for the next, sorry for the late update!!!**

**and thanks again for those who reviewed, hope i didn't disappoint you... :D  
**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Notes: ok, let me emphasize that I 'SUCK' at updating and may you be aware that I don't use that word often unless it is VERY necessary to. Anyways I've decided after leaving this story to the dust for SO long now that I will AT LEAST finish it. This DOES NOT prove that this chapter will be the ending of it, although it is less work if I DID end it like that (-psychotic laugh here**-**) but what the heck-! Not many people read AUs so no point here.**

**I'd like to thank rukaru-romance. passion and Mad Eclair for the reviews they made for my recent chapter and probably the LAST ones I'd get for this story :D. (Cuz' I have this weird feeling nobody would read this after my LOOOOONG absence [should there be a laugh here?]) **

**AND finally _and perhaps again, _I would thank ****rukaru-romance. passion a million times for standing by me ever since the first chapter if I ever had the fingers to type it a million times, then YEAH! i would.**

**Well, I won't keep you any longer, here it is:  
**

Chapter 5

"Hotaru's not registered?"

"Yes, it would seem so" Subaru put a palm to his chin as his gaze fell. Narumi continued to inquire him about his sister but all he could say in answer was

"I don't know" the teacher stared at the student council member suspiciously, watching his eyes for any sign of false truth.

"All I know is this" he began

"my sister had been absent for a couple of days time to finish a machine she had been working on for a particularly long time, she was never found at her research base when the fire incident began although three of her classmates were found in it instead" his voice was in the exact same tone as if saying 'it's not my problem' or 'I don't really care what happens to Hotaru but thats all I know'.

He never really showed concern for his younger sibling and he wasn't planning to start now even if her death was a typical theory but wasn't proven exactly. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose before capturing back the gaze of the two grade school teachers.

"I would like to see one of the victims"

"That's impossible; you don't have the authori-"

"On the contrary, Jinno" Subaru raised his hand in sudden interruption. It wasn't polite but he was in a hurry.

"Did you not forget what my Alice is?"

"Even though you have THAT Alice, you can't just get yourself in like that"

"I have connections with ALL of the Academy's doctors"

"Then help us get in"

"don't be so rash, Narumi...it would seem you aren't much help as it is, so you might as well just stay put until I give the word"

"But that's..."

"I will take care of things from now on, Narumi... it is, word expressed 'beyond your league'"

"But they are MY students, I can't just sit here and watch"

"Hotaru is also my sister and her friends are..." Subaru pauses for a moment as if it's difficult for him to continue "are my friends too" he partly croaked out, not sounding pleased at his change of voice.

"Now wait just a..."

"Narumi" Jinno pressed a hand onto Narumi's chest, pushing him away from the junior only a few centimeters farther.

Narumi stared at himself in disbelief, had he not noticed he was moving slowly towards the Imai brother? He hadn't known also of the invisible crumpling feeling of rage growing within him at the same pace, he knows he can't do anything about the situation present but just standing around would ultimately drive him crazy. He loved his students as if they were his blood-related kids (it wasn't like Subaru's brotherly 'love' per se but it was close). It, of course was hypothetically untrue but this was just... torture.

Narumi bowed his head down in a dead silence, not having the slightest idea of offering an apology to Hotaru's brother after his anger started to reveal itself.

"I'll give you an update as soon as I return" Subaru added before leaving the hospital lobby with loud 'CLICK CLACKings' of his black leather shoes. He glanced back in doubt at the two one more time, wondering if he really will come back with updates.

The Imai brother narrowed his eyes at the thought before trotting down the hall a few more paces and disappearing entirely from the teachers' sights.

* * *

"Well... this was harder than I expected" Subaru remarked, his eyes stuck to the growling creature circling around him.

The Imai sibling was only able to reach the patient entered on the registry as Nogi Ruka when he was peculiarly attacked by a pale white beast, a small one in particular but it looked no where near as harmless.

"Down boy, down" for once, Imai Subaru had shown an emotion disgraceful to the Imai family.

Fear.

This creature, although depicted to be surprisingly of a tiny size was quite... how would he put it? Terrifying? Perhaps, but that would be too short a word to describe his dilemma. What was he thinking? An Imai should not ever consider such a little problem to be considered a 'dilemma'.

Although, their biological parents and other close relatives with the surname 'Imai' wouldn't mind thinking of such an idea, it was certainly against him and his beloved sister whom have decided quietly the cold-faced-not-afraid-of-anything-Imai-tradition. A point here which meant: you've got to start somewhere.

He was a bit reluctant to admit the 'beloved sister' part actually, maybe some sarcasm would be considerably added to that.

As he was wasting time standing almost defenselessly against the wall, Subaru made his daring attempt to dodge the tempestuous animal but as he made a move towards Ruka's bed, it snarled and snapped its teeth together, marking a fairly large scar on its front left fang, definitely don't want to go anywhere near those teeth.

Just this once, he allowed a single gulp to escape his throat but began to fix his posture straight after to prove his fear otherwise. He created a blank stare with his eyes as deep black pools trying to drown the beast within its hold, but that only helped him regain his pride whilst the animal smiling evilly at him ear to ear, preparing to pounce.

Suddenly, it abrupt its action as Ruka jumped out of his bed, awoken by a reason unknown. The blonde middle aged boy in the gray Hospital uniform had his eyes stretched to a length of content fear, hints of confusion fogging up his eyesight a bit.

He yelled something that sounded like a distressed 'E-my', probably a cross between a resounding 'eep!' and a... possible 'oh my!' Subaru suspected this thoughtfully. Come to think of it though, Ruka doesn't sound like the type to use those kinds of expressions.

He then blinked numerously around the room excluding the dark space Subaru was protecting himself in and slumped down onto his pillow for back support, with an obvious emotion of discouragement. Was there something he was looking for? Subaru still fought through that mystery.

Now Ruka was gazing into the space in front of him as if a toddler was attached to a favorite TV show, it aroused the Imai son's curiosity even more but he chose silence for the mean time. The beast seemed equally distracted at Ruka's quick revival, looking almost vulnerable with sympathy at the depressed boy thus it gifted Subaru a chance of escape but apparently he felt no means necessary to conjure up any movement.

This person, although a child could help him find out where Hotaru was whether he would tell him the precise location or just give out bits of clues of it just by flow of the conversation, force was needed to get either of them so not much difference for him. One thing was clear though, Subaru wasn't leaving without a fruitful answer, no matter the circumstances. He'd just have to search for a time to jump on the 'little guy' for it, none taken literally... ofcourse.

Ruka's face all of a sudden lit up remarkably as he declared (to himself).

"I will definitely save her even if it'll cost my life"

A chance.

"Ruka Nogi, what do you know of Hotaru?" Subaru put in, trying to sound as normal as possible, Ruka looked quite shocked at his voice (in fact, gob smacked when he actually saw the owner of it), recalling earlier that he had found no one else in this room other than himself.

"Subaru Imai?" he gaped. Subaru ignored his name being called and continued on.

"I would very much like to know the current whereabouts of my sister, which I presume you know of" the teenage man made a gesture with his hand in reminder, trying to be somewhat polite.

He heard a growl and remembered the creature that kept him against the wall, having forgotten it minutes ago. It was squaring him this time, darting blood red beads he uses as eyes straight at him.

Ruka instantly notices this and naturally yet quickly snaps his fingers twice. For a moment there, Subaru thought that the beast was going to eat up Ruka as it charged head-on towards him, little drops of saliva dripped down its hungry mouth. But then low and behold, a bunny appeared onto his lap depicted to be both innocent and cute as it nestled its body closer its owner. Subaru's expression went blank.

"I... I should've known" he took off his glasses and began cleaning out the lenses.

"That creature couldn't have been real this whole time, how idiotic of me"

"What creature?" Ruka raised an eyebrow at him.

"It's nothing" the Academy vice-president positioned his glasses back onto his stoic face, leaning uncomfortably against the wall yet again. Ruka frowned

"Use the chair over there; I think it's for visitors, right?"

"You must know by now that I'm not here for a visit" Subaru went serious; he had come for a reason after all. Ruka shrugged at his offer of help being heedlessly flicked away and helped himself to some fruits given to him by his classmates, plucking out an apple with his free hand (other one in a cast) and eating it whole heartily.

Or at least, as far as his acting could take him to such an emotion, 'don't give in, Ruka!' a voice forced him on 'this guy wants to know where Hotaru is, don't give in! Don't give in!' the mental noise was ignored at most times but it had a good point. How much of what he mumbled about Hotaru got to Subaru while he was dazed in the room? He practically choked on a seed at the idea.

Was he permitted to tell the brother of the held captive EVERYTHING? For the time being, he chose not too.

"er... about Hotaru" he bit his lip nervously

"I haven't... seen her in a while actually"

"but you did mention about her a few minutes ago, didn't you?"

"d...did I?" Ruka gazed at the Imai brother, chewing off his fruit with chattered teeth.

"I don't remember saying her name" A memory jumbled in his head back when he shouted her surname (instead of her first name) when he woke up from... whatever it was that connected him to Hotaru's head. Relief ran through him that it wasn't her ACTUAL name but disappeared as he saw Subaru's face, this isn't over.

"No, you didn't, but you said something about 'saving' someone and if I remember correctly" his eyes narrowed "you mentioned a 'her'"

Ruka lit up like a bright red tomato, the apple looking pink in contrast to him. The mentioning of a 'her' sounded rather suspicious especially if inserted into that kind of a sentence but if Subaru heard that then he must also be equivalently concerned about the 'cost his life' saving thing. A peek at the newcomer's face along with its dark diamond piercing eyes made Ruka quiver even more… A cover-up, he needed a cover-up!

"Well..." he stalled

"I was NOT talking about Hotaru that time" it dawned him that Subaru wasn't satisfied with that as a response.

"Who then?"

"Aren't you going to check my wounds now with you're... Um... Alice?"

"First, who?"

"My arm... really does hurt"

"It'll heal, who was it?"

"Can I have a drink? I'm thirsty"

"Who. Was. It?"

"Sleeping really does suck out the water of you, doesn't it?"

"Ruka Nogi..."

"Thirsty, thirsty."

"WHO WAS IT?" Subaru's annoyed voice was raised to an extent that Ruka almost fell off his bed at the volume, the metal side of the bed scraping off a wrapping of his bandage.

Subaru was breathing heavily as he muttered a colorful curse, daring not to admit that he had shown yet another unnecessary emotion to such an individual. The stunned blonde patent lifted his worn out limb back onto the bed, skimming his fingertips over the destroyed cloth wrapping.

He chewed on his lower lip, just how long could he keep this up, especially in this state?

"Mikan" his vocals cowered, the white lie being masked in a perfectly unseen black.

"It was Mikan who I wanted to save"

Other than the subtle noise of some unknown nurse pushing a cart to the far end of the hallway outside, the hallowing salutations in the other room indicating visitors to a welcome and the queer tapping of heels across the tiled floor, probably bumping into the nurse with the cart accidentally and without a mouthed apology, vanished to the other side of the hospital, all was quiet.

Ruka had labeled this carefully as his punishment, possibly for lying but he felt this sort of notion that he hadn't been caught by the Imai brother just yet. Maybe he had suspected with the recent series of accounts, containing record of the burned down obstruction and three grade school children being trapped inside it but were lucky to have escaped the fiery clutches, is what Ruka was telling him about, highlighting the 'save' part.

Subaru exhaled regrettably; it wasn't the place for further interrogation.

He unwillingly pushed himself off the wall, trotted over to Ruka's side and scanned his hand over his body, stealing away several injuries from minor bruises to deep painful cuts of his skin. He purposely avoided the rabbit who was napping peacefully for a while now. His palm hovered over Ruka's bandaged arm the longest before he withdrew his outstretched hand and left without another word.

Almost fully healed, our blonde protagonist stroked the smooth fur of his pet casually with the hand that once held a crimson fruit, thinking of his next step. The cork of the apple churned over at the plate neighboring at his side, was it wind caused? Frankly, he didn't care of his surroundings.

He concentrated firmly on the one thing that kept his mind in a dizzy state. Ruka frowned at the aroused rabbit at his lap, lazily enjoying the gentle brushing of his animal coat.

"I have a job for you, boy" he beamed, motioning for its tall instinctive ears to approach closer. Whispering in a uniquely low level of his next movement, the rabbit wiggled his pink nose in a positive reply.

It was then seen by the hanging security cameras at the corner of the room, of a tiny white being slipping under the door carefully as the end of it's cotton ball tail stuck out accidentally, it took three tries before it was tugged out of the hole and out the door. The cameras zoomed in on the queer occurrence, unaware of the lifting and shutting of the window directly across the room.

Total silence.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

This had to be officially pointed out sooner or later, it's not like it was impossible or anything. Alas, it had to be announced on a later side.

Ruka was a wimp.

Yes, yes you were not fooled in perspective; the word 'wimp' was mentioned, indeed.

Did you really believe that he wouldn't have been scared after all that's happened? It was preposterous if he ever came back after seeing that 'demon' taking over Hotaru, body and soul, less of the soul part.

It was just… the normal thing to do, if not it'll be completely on the out-of-character category.

Hotaru hunched forward at the idea. She had the carefully syllabified 'wimp' to soothe the tension building up in her stomach generally. Nervousness digesting the bit of food she took not too long ago but this was her conscious; 'hunger' was nothing here.

She scrunched her eyes in contemplation, what with the problem giving her a headache.

Of course, Ruka would've... If not, should've listened to her words, something crossed between a 'protect Mikan' rule and 'forget about her (and perhaps all the pains and sorrows she suffered)' command. She forgot either way of what she had told him.

How long has she been in this dirty prison? Days? Weeks? It had alikeness to several years if she had given out her own opinion personally.

Minutes before, she had seen Nonoko from behind the eyes that were controlled like an easy going video game to the 'spirit', so it's only a matter of time before her classmate would figure out the news and come get people to...

Hang on a second!

What the hell has she been doing?

Since when has SHE ever been the damsel-in-distress? Hotaru's eyes blinked away of all her negative emotions, seemingly to fit a sentimental princess desperate for her savior to swoop down in a 'magical' white horse from above the skies and destroy the dragon that's been keeping her from the world.

She shuddered at the pondered image of her in a fluffy pink dress and -dare she say it- Ruka mounted on one of his four-legged animal friends, reaching a cream felt hand towards her. She, as a young ditsy girl would gleefully accept it and before you know it, they were riding off towards the sunset which was pointlessly thousands of light-years away from them.

Her eyes were agonizingly forced open, she cringed in disgust. She refused to be one of those girls. Not that she was impatient but she'd do anything to stay away from fluffy pink dresses.

Standing up from the pitch black mind she had been trapped in for the passing time, she cracked the only ten knuckles her fists had offered her. SHE will be the one to save herself, not some corny old prince from one of those sappy movies Mikan would eventually force her to watch (and that was the politest way she'd insult Mikan's Barbie sugar plum princess movies).

Hotaru bounded for the end of her head, which was miles and miles stretched out horizontally. Giving up on walking any farther, she smacked her balled up hands onto the colorless floor below her feet, multiple times she smashed the ground with all her might with no given response.

This went on for so long, she wondered how the 'spirit' could have handled the ignored migraine, falling back on her spontaneous plan she sat down in a frustrated dismay. Physically, she knew she couldn't win, mentally wasn't a choice either.

Even if she was incredibly gifted with the mind of Einstein, the 'spirit' had communication to that area as well, taming it useless to her. Plus she wasn't in the best position to do much, she groaned at the idea.

Maybe it wasn't so bad to just die here besides that was the most probable outcome with what Ruka could do, unless he had a better idea than anything she could think up.

"No" she stubbornly disagreed "that just wouldn't be normal"

* * *

Sneaky, that's what he had to be.

The scent of smoke slithered into his nose without another settling. He twitched his nose disdainfully but had knowledge that he was at the right destination.

His feet barely could lift themselves; they dragged behind his body in a queer speed.

There were a couple of yells from inside the room, frightening him for his courage was at a small size. Unbeknownst, that the shouts were mere spoken instructions of highly trained doctors and nurses, which from the inside was no louder than the cricket sounds that loitered through a coincidentally open window.

The night was young as he was patient at the time ticking.

Tick. Tick.

Not yet.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

Almost.

Tick.

Perfect.

He launched ahead, ready to knock down the door that blocked him from success.

"Now now" said a sudden feminine voice "whose little pet is this?" he was lifted by the back of his thick fur, where Ruka had massaged hours ago.

He gritted his tiny teeth, it felt the least comfortable with the sharp nails the woman had obtained at an unknown parlor and it scratched his little hairs as he attempted escape.

"Ooh, a little feisty, aren't we?" she pinched his whiskers

"Well, your not allowed here lil' one, this is a hospital. Let's go find your owner" the animal grimaced, both at what he knew of how buildings such as these didn't allow flea-ridden pets such as he and that no matter where they tried to look, he had known already of his master's presence far from where he was.

But that was supposed to be a secret, oh well oops.

* * *

"Hurts, d-doesn't it Natsume?" she gave out a nervous giggle.

"Shut up polka-dots!" the boy countered, fury grazed on his face as he tried to catch a glimpse of his talkative classmate. Unfortunately, the bandages were too over exaggerated with only two available openings, so his crimson pupils and thin chapped lips could provide necessary sight and mindless chitchat thus he saw only part of Mikan's pigtails, which weren't much.

"you look like a mini mummy" she forced laughter, almost like pointlessly attempting to fill in the emptiness of her sewn up arms and legs, which stung even as she licked her cracked lips from drying up entirely.

Movement was restricted for she too was thoroughly wrapped in white like a risen pyramid immortal but Natsume hadn't insulted her about it yet, probably meaning his head was not permitted to move that much to keep her in view.

"Shut up!"

"There's a bunch of fruits here, look! Permy even sent you a good... Three, four... Fifteen apples!"

It took a dominant amount of her energy to swivel her eyes to that direction and it didn't help that her neck noisily cracked in timing. Her bones and joints have gone numb after usage being minimized in her bandages, only a matter of time before she breaks a leg or two.

"I know, just shut up already!" she flinched, half because her extended neck had warned her not to command anything else to adjust and half because Natsume had cried out so forcefully, she found his mood curious.

"A-all you say is 'shut up!' you know?" Natsume sighed

"If you keep on talking, your voice will strain your body"

"But you're talking als-"

"Shut. Up!" Mikan mentally zipped her mouth; it had gone empty of any reusable saliva anyway.

She understood he meant well even if he was bossing her around so normally.

Puffing out an inhale of air and being glared at for it, she thought of the several possibilities of what her best friend had been doing for the past hour. 'Had she began to eat breakfast yet? Or had she seen that burned down construction yet? She'd be devastated if she saw it. Is she at school already?'

Noting that Hotaru wasn't there when the fire had started, hope swelled in her chest though little it was. All of a sudden, her mind flashed some clear positive images of Hotaru and her lifeless purple orbs out on the streets of Alice Academy, viewing the wind like a new mechanism, her in the library flipping through a math book, preparing endlessly for the trigonometry test tomorrow (which Mikan hadn't study for yet), her screwing on a piece of metal to the body of a robot. The last of which was the most believable of all motions the subjective slideshow could provide of what she COULD be doing currently.

The authentic sights of her missed companion running through her mind formed cold spiced tears to balance on her weak eyelashes and they lightly started to tingle the recesses of her eyes. She evened them out by numerously blinking and firmly neglecting the images from taking a second entrance.

"Where was Imai back there?" Natsume perked up, remarking of her peculiar non-appearance back at the conservatory. At the sound of his inquiry, Mikan destroyed all evidences leading to her emotional breakdown and soon replied

"Oh? Natsume, I thought we weren't supposed to talk"

"I said three words, you said ten words"

"That wasn't-...five, six, seven...that was NINE words!" she could've raised nine fingers at him hauntingly, if she wasn't so tight within the wrappings. She awaited a witty comeback but nothing else was spoken by the maroon eyed boy. Timidly, she tried to explain what she knew of Hotaru, in answer to his question.

"Actually I don't know really know where Hotaru-"

"shhhhh!"

"Hey, you were the one who asked me about her! So don't you-" she silenced herself as blaring voices came from outside their door, eavesdropping they chose to do. It was muffled, difficult to decipher with their covered up ears.

"What do you mean? No... I thought they'd ALL be fine already!" 'Narumi-sensei?' Mikan guessed

"... Ruka didn't...actually it... Hotaru is still lost out there" 'Hotaru's brother!'

"….…..…..the others, what's...okay?"

"Their fine, their fine...checked records….…..out tomorrow"

There was a loud heaved sigh of relief.

"…. But I just heard..."

"Ruka's gone?" alarmingly Mikan's eyelids were pushed up to one of those wide eyed looks nobody finds attractive lately, Natsume should have heard it too but his stoic tic facial expression remained dead. The same thought was there though,

Ruka, where did you go?

* * *

Our blonde hero was weak to his knees, running two kilometers straight whilst his arm in a cemented cast was no mild walk in the park. He inhaled more rapidly, exhales being thrown out every once in a while, he just couldn't take anymore of the unexpected exercise.

Geez, he's such a wimp.

Summoning the powers of his Alice and within minutes, he was mingling with a large eagle that had been crawling in the leafy jungle alongside the road he took. Ruka then hopped onto its feathery back and with a reassuring word of peace, they immediately soared to the skies.

Clouds fierce fully attacked his face from left to right, toying with his delicate eye sight. He had to squint his eyes to see better of the afternoon display. In the bright turquoise sky, there was an outline as one of the masses of clouds attempted to hide the medium sized sun from harmfully releasing its violent rays. Light sprayed out from the cloud, shaping it to a finer quality. It took the inanimate form of a heart, painted in a deep sea blue.

It was beautiful.

He wished SHE could see it. Having spent a week in that pitch black mind of hers, she might too find the blinding sight beautiful. Hesitantly, he promised to show it to her one day, he then returned back to course.

Up here, nothing was particularly visible not until he dives vertically to get even the most blurry view of the school, he wasn't picky about it. He knew in memory that he was hovering above it like a distinct map he originally envisioned before take-off.

As they riskily dipped down, there was that same rush of the wind that attempted to toss him off the bird, which was a failure of plan. He clung tightly to the back of the creature, in his hand was a clump of smooth plumage and strangely the eagle didn't mind the pulling. Ruka could also feel the skull of the wildfowl from behind four thick layers of tuffs; it was so feeble even as its existence as a predator.

Ruka realized that the wind stopped its blustering and became a calming air that flushed through his face, like this he was almost enjoying his free flying.

Once the clouds gave way and everything below was already visible to him, he notices a crowd gathering around someone in the cafeteria veranda.

'Maybe a fight had started but that's impossible since Natsume isn't there.' Ruka said to himself, joking about his companion's temper.

What can he say?

Natsume was Natsume.

Ecstatic questions and rushed exclamations were at his earshot, some of which broke goose bumps through his young spinal cord.

"Your back, Hotaru!"

"Did you see the fire at that precious place of yours, Hotaru-san?"

"Where have you been?"

"Do you know we'll have a quiz in five minutes?"

With a hassled order to land, the eagle flapped its wings in warning to the students below and crashed to the cemented floor. They moved aside, getting out of Ruka's way of amateur landing. Some girls were holding their skirts down, shrieking at the quick change of weather (having not seen the humungous bird yet) and some boys were blocking their faces from the microscopic flying dust which might peck into their fragile eyes.

Everyone backed away, except one.

There she was, as if she was perfectly fine, as if nothing had happened, as if he just woken up from a dream. A nightmare, more likely but does Ruka really need to correct himself NOW?

He froze in astonishment atop his new pet, his mouth fairly open but it was hardly noticed. Hotaru Imai was indisputably before him with the same cold face she put up with everyone, a hoard of classmates surrounding her; still she took no action similar to theirs.

The zoological Alice user launched himself off the beaked animal, patting its head gratefully and gaped at his friend in awe. The girl raised one of her thin eyebrows at the newcomer as if he had gone crazy, looking at her like that. It took minutes to recover from the shock, even the crowd thought he was nuts.

He rubbed his eyes predictably, drew in a helpless amount of air and spoke in a heavy unused voice.

"Is that... Imai?" he flexed a finger at her, who gave another questioning gaze at him.

"Oh. My. Gosh! It's Ruka-kun!" one side of the hoard bellowed. Fear it true, there was only one person who had the courage to speak something up in this awkward silence.

"Ruka-kun, you're back from the hospital?" Sumire waved, snapping the crowd back to normal.

"Oh yeah, he WAS in the hospital" one reminded the other

"Ruka, I'm glad your back!" one guy patted his back

"where's Hyugga, Nogi?"

"Ruka-kun!" in an instant, everyone had fully engulfed him into a one-man show, begging for answers and yelling his name, him struggling in the middle of the recreated ring.

"w-wait a second, guys-" he reacted

"Imai?" Ruka pushed through his devoted fan club and a gathered group of his friend wannabes.

"Imai?" he cried, being vulnerably swallowed in again.

Hotaru glimpsed at the boy once but no sooner left the scene quietly.

**Author's Notes: I purposely put two chapters in as punishment for my un-presentness (?). Weeeeeeell, I did my best. Thats all i can say -.-'**

**What do you think? Did i choose right by NOT stopping this? I'll continue to the next update IF there's a 'Yes' LOL. yea, i know that won't happen. **

**Oh well, can't say I DIDN'T try, see you next time :)  
**


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